WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.620 When you heard the reading this morning, you might have thought that there was a wedding happening here. Jonathan and Clara are getting married and some of us are heading over that way. 00:00:10.620 --> 00:00:10.620 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:42.240 Anytime Hollywood or any kind of film has a British film, an English village wedding, you're guaranteed to have 1 Corinthians 13 in the script. 00:00:43.219 --> 00:00:48.000 Normally, somebody with a pompous voice will stand up and say it with great gusto. 00:00:49.120 --> 00:00:58.100 So when we come to it as we do this morning, in the course of the letter 1 Corinthians, it feels out of place. 00:00:58.100 --> 00:01:10.000 It feels that some kind of mistake has been made because this very famous love poem, so familiar in the wedding context, tailor-made, you could say, for weddings, 00:01:10.659 --> 00:01:16.340 comes in a section about spiritual gifts and about division in the church and about rivalry and about conflict. 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:19.840 So the question is, has Paul got distracted? 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:27.439 Has Paul cut and pasted one of his wedding sermons and put it into a sermon about spiritual gifts and division in the church? 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:28.519 Is that what's happened? 00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:30.219 He's been up there. 00:01:30.539 --> 00:01:31.679 I mean, this may happen. 00:01:31.780 --> 00:01:34.060 This may happen in the life of a preacher, but you're up there. 00:01:34.140 --> 00:01:41.099 You've got your notes and you turn the page and you realize you've got a page from somewhere else or you've put something in there that didn't delete something or something like that. 00:01:41.140 --> 00:01:41.879 Has Paul done that? 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:43.340 Well, obviously not. 00:01:43.759 --> 00:01:45.759 So we have to think, what is it that's going on? 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:56.740 The key thing we need to understand with 1 Corinthians 13 is that Paul hasn't moved on from what he was saying in chapter 12 and what he will continue to pick up about spiritual gifts in chapter 14. 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:04.719 What he's doing in chapter 13 is addressing the way the Corinthians are thinking about spiritual gifts and the way that they use them. 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:13.919 And we've seen up to this point the way that spiritual gifts have become a cause for rivalry and superiority in the life of the Corinthian church. 00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:25.639 And Paul is showing how this division reveals a lack of the one fundamental thing that is required if you're going to call yourself a Christian. 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:38.579 I remember back in John's gospel when Jesus was speaking to his disciples about what it meant to be a Christian, what it meant to be a follower of Jesus, to walk in the way of Jesus. 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:49.799 And he says essentially, if you want to boil it all down, the very essence of being a Christian, the chief mark of Christian spirituality, John chapter 13, verse 35, he says, 00:02:49.979 --> 00:02:53.779 This is how all people will know that you are my disciples. 00:02:53.780 --> 00:02:55.919 This is how they'll know. 00:02:56.719 --> 00:02:59.319 If you call yourself a Christian, this is how they will know. 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:09.120 Does he follow that then by saying, by your gifts, by your theological precision, by your impressive and successful life according to worldly terms? 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:10.159 No, he doesn't say that. 00:03:10.740 --> 00:03:12.979 He says, it is as you love one another. 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:18.020 The watching world should be able to identify Christians. 00:03:18.979 --> 00:03:20.340 We should stand out. 00:03:21.139 --> 00:03:22.599 We should be recognizable. 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:26.759 And the thing that should mark us out is our love for one another. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:31.080 And Paul is saying it's absent in Corinth, and so he's rebuking them. 00:03:31.920 --> 00:03:33.080 He's correcting them. 00:03:34.020 --> 00:03:35.500 He's trying to set them straight. 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:40.039 His tone in this chapter has none of the warmth of the reader at that wedding. 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:46.919 He's frustrated in actual fact as he calls them back to the love that they have lost in their life together. 00:03:46.919 --> 00:04:03.439 The very thing at root that is supposed to mark them out as different from the watching world, the thing that is supposed to set apart the Christian community from every other community in civilization, is the nature of our relationships, that they are marked by love. 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:11.780 Now, I'm glad to say, I'm very glad to say that I don't think we have people fighting over spiritual gifts among us here in Ealing. 00:04:11.780 --> 00:04:27.439 There is, however, always a temptation in church life to look down on others who don't see things the way you do, who don't share your view on the issues that you care about, and to create cliques with those who do share your views. 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:30.019 So we have to hear what Paul has to say here. 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:38.240 I want to say it's also the case, if we're being honest with ourselves, that Reformed people seem to be especially good at this kind of division. 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:50.420 Because we care about the Bible, because we want to do what the Bible says, even though often we can have so much in common, we fixate on the point of difference and we use it as a cause for division. 00:04:50.420 --> 00:05:05.819 We can agree on all the key doctrines of the faith, we can agree on secondary issues, we can agree even on really niche things way, way over here, and yet we'll find the one thing on which to disagree and we'll blow it up and we'll make it the thing that causes us to fall out. 00:05:06.540 --> 00:05:07.200 It happens. 00:05:08.300 --> 00:05:09.480 And it happens too often. 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:20.439 You'll even hear people in the kind of circles that I move in say very generous things about other people with whom they disagree on major theological things. 00:05:21.100 --> 00:05:24.879 They'll say, he's a Pentecostal egalitarian, but he's a good guy. 00:05:25.700 --> 00:05:29.879 And yet, they're very critical about people in their own denomination, people in their own church family. 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:31.960 That's not how it should be. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:38.819 Family conflict is the worst kind of conflict, and we often are guilty of that in Reformed circles, but it should not be. 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:46.640 And this is where Paul starts as he talks about the importance of love in the life of the church. 00:05:47.259 --> 00:05:49.340 That's our first point, importance. 00:05:50.379 --> 00:05:52.600 Paul starts with the importance of love. 00:05:52.700 --> 00:05:53.040 Verse 1, 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:59.600 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:09.400 If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:10.560 I am nothing. 00:06:11.259 --> 00:06:18.840 If I give away all I have, if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:23.200 There are three conditional statements here. 00:06:23.300 --> 00:06:26.360 Paul is saying, look, I could have the greatest gift of speech imaginable. 00:06:26.780 --> 00:06:27.379 Verse 1, 00:06:27.379 --> 00:06:32.839 But if I use those gifts without love, they'll just create a din. 00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:35.459 It's an empty noise. 00:06:36.939 --> 00:06:38.139 Then verse 2, he says, 00:06:38.139 --> 00:06:39.479 I could have the gift of prophecy. 00:06:39.879 --> 00:06:43.620 I could know every point of theology completely accurately. 00:06:44.039 --> 00:06:46.439 And I could believe it with absolute certainty. 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:47.699 I could have total faith. 00:06:47.860 --> 00:06:51.919 So I could know the right things, and I could believe them in the right way completely. 00:06:52.060 --> 00:06:54.979 But without love, I am nothing. 00:06:56.339 --> 00:06:57.279 An empty person. 00:06:58.300 --> 00:06:59.879 Empty noise, an empty person. 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:03.979 He's saying, you could be the finest preacher that has ever stood behind a pulpit. 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:08.939 You might understand the hardest books in the Bible completely accurately. 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:15.280 You could be 100% certain about what the head-covering chapter is about, chapter 11. 00:07:15.700 --> 00:07:17.080 You could actually be right about that. 00:07:18.060 --> 00:07:19.680 You could have the whole catechism memorized. 00:07:20.379 --> 00:07:25.259 But without love, without love, it's not just, you know, it's not ideal, is it? 00:07:25.340 --> 00:07:26.660 Or, you know, oh, that's not great. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:28.600 He's saying, no, you're nothing. 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:33.900 You got all the answers right in the test, but you failed. 00:07:36.300 --> 00:07:38.340 Gifts of speech, gifts of knowledge, faith. 00:07:38.460 --> 00:07:40.379 Then Paul turns, verse 3, to the activists. 00:07:41.200 --> 00:07:43.600 You see, if you're an activist, you see you're in there. 00:07:43.820 --> 00:07:45.800 Those who say, I'm not really into theology. 00:07:47.180 --> 00:07:48.640 Like, I know the basics. 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:50.160 The basics are what it's all about. 00:07:50.580 --> 00:07:51.500 Doctrine divides. 00:07:51.640 --> 00:07:53.220 That's that kind of language. 00:07:53.740 --> 00:07:54.700 It can be a distraction. 00:07:54.860 --> 00:07:56.439 I'm a doer of the Word. 00:07:56.439 --> 00:07:58.399 Well, listen to Paul. 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:00.240 What does he say? 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:01.360 I can do all good deeds. 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:02.740 I can run myself ragged. 00:08:02.920 --> 00:08:04.699 I can give my last penny to the poor. 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:05.899 I can sacrifice my health. 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:09.439 I can even sacrifice my own life for the sake of Christ. 00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:15.180 But if I do it without love, I gain nothing. 00:08:17.579 --> 00:08:22.860 Empty noise, an empty person, and then these are just empty gestures. 00:08:22.860 --> 00:08:27.840 Without love, your words, there's nothing to them. 00:08:28.180 --> 00:08:28.980 There's nothing there. 00:08:29.939 --> 00:08:33.680 Your actions, there's nothing there. 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:36.100 Can you see how serious this is? 00:08:36.460 --> 00:08:41.680 Can you see how important it is that love is so central in our life together? 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:46.720 See, if I was to ask you, I don't know that we're getting this in general in the church. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:57.820 If I was to ask you what the most important part of a church is, if you were to go to the books that tell you how to run a church or how to organize your life together as a church, the how-to books, they would say, what do you need? 00:08:57.899 --> 00:08:58.940 What is essential? 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:00.019 Good preaching. 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:00.960 Okay. 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:02.379 Commitment to prayer. 00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:03.420 Yes. 00:09:03.660 --> 00:09:04.279 Gifted elders. 00:09:04.580 --> 00:09:04.879 Yes. 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:06.120 Servant-hearted leaders. 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:06.639 Yes. 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:08.379 All of those things are good things. 00:09:08.940 --> 00:09:11.500 All of those things are going to be present in a healthy church. 00:09:11.500 --> 00:09:15.799 But Paul says the most important thing is love. 00:09:18.679 --> 00:09:20.379 Without it, everything else is empty. 00:09:22.980 --> 00:09:30.000 This is partly, I think, why elders in Christ's church are chosen on the basis of their character more than their gifts. 00:09:30.940 --> 00:09:38.779 Because it's possible to speak well, to understand theology, and to serve others, and still not have the one thing that actually matters. 00:09:41.500 --> 00:09:42.799 That's the church. 00:09:42.860 --> 00:09:44.139 What about the Christian life in general? 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:54.100 I think if we think about the way we think about what it means for us to serve the Lord Jesus, we think about it as a list of tasks to be accomplished. 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:57.919 And the more tasks that we can complete, the better. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:05.759 If we can get through the tasks, well then, our godliness will soar. 00:10:07.439 --> 00:10:09.139 We want to be as useful as possible. 00:10:09.259 --> 00:10:10.539 Now, of course, it's good to be useful. 00:10:10.659 --> 00:10:11.240 Of course it is. 00:10:11.259 --> 00:10:13.259 It's great to be sold out for the sake of Christ. 00:10:13.899 --> 00:10:16.259 We should be sold out for the sake of Christ. 00:10:17.019 --> 00:10:19.779 But if you do it all without love, it's empty. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.379 God doesn't need you to be useful. 00:10:25.379 --> 00:10:27.840 He doesn't need you at all. 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:30.299 He doesn't need you. 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:31.539 He doesn't need me. 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:32.879 He doesn't need any of us. 00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:38.139 What he cares about is whether or not your life is marked by love. 00:10:38.700 --> 00:10:42.879 God did not make you a Christian because he needs you to change the world. 00:10:43.019 --> 00:10:46.179 He made you a Christian in order to change you. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:51.980 And to change you into the likeness of his son who is the man of love. 00:10:51.980 --> 00:10:56.139 So think about your week ahead. 00:10:56.840 --> 00:11:05.360 If you get to this time next week and you have been amazingly productive, but you've had to crack a few heads to get there, well, would that be a win? 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:07.639 I, you say. 00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:10.340 It's all right for you to say that. 00:11:10.419 --> 00:11:11.620 I operate in the real world. 00:11:12.120 --> 00:11:13.939 Well, no, this is written into the real world. 00:11:15.620 --> 00:11:23.639 Would you be happy to get through the to-do list, to get all the tasks done, to get everything to have been amazingly productive, but, you know, you've had to crack a few heads to get there? 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:31.600 Or would you have been happy with a week where you were spectacularly unproductive, but you treated the people around you with love? 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:36.299 I reckon if you're honest with yourself, you'd say, well, you know. 00:11:38.360 --> 00:11:40.500 First thing you'd say is, well, you don't have to choose. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:41.480 It doesn't have to be one or the other. 00:11:41.559 --> 00:11:43.059 I realize it doesn't have to be one or the other. 00:11:43.059 --> 00:11:47.559 But if you did have to choose, I think many of us, most of us, if we're honest, we'd say we're about the hustle. 00:11:47.819 --> 00:11:48.839 We're about the productivity. 00:11:49.099 --> 00:11:50.119 We've got to get stuff done. 00:11:51.459 --> 00:11:52.199 Here's the thing. 00:11:53.500 --> 00:12:00.359 Loveless, fruitfulness, or productivity isn't fruitful or productive in the one way that matters. 00:12:01.819 --> 00:12:10.119 You can look at your list of things that you have achieved, all of the stuff that you've got through, and if you've done it without love, you may as well not have bothered. 00:12:10.819 --> 00:12:12.000 That's what Paul is saying. 00:12:13.059 --> 00:12:18.419 Whatever gifts you've been given, love is more important. 00:12:19.199 --> 00:12:21.279 Otherwise, those gifts are nothing. 00:12:22.319 --> 00:12:23.279 I read this recently. 00:12:23.539 --> 00:12:26.219 Nothing plus nothing plus nothing equals nothing. 00:12:26.839 --> 00:12:29.119 Nothing times nothing is nothing. 00:12:29.859 --> 00:12:32.139 Nothing to the power of nothing is nothing. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:34.779 Without love, Paul is saying, you're a zero. 00:12:38.179 --> 00:12:39.599 He's not mucking about, is he? 00:12:41.119 --> 00:12:42.259 This is the real world. 00:12:42.259 --> 00:12:45.139 He's saying, look, this is how it should be in the way that you treat other people. 00:12:45.419 --> 00:12:47.220 This is how it should be in the life of the church. 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:51.379 This is how it should be in your relationships, in your home, in your marriage, and so on. 00:12:52.340 --> 00:12:54.039 Love is right at the top. 00:12:54.460 --> 00:12:55.960 It is the most important thing. 00:12:55.960 --> 00:13:06.440 The more excellent way, verse 31 of chapter 12, where 13 should really start, requires love. 00:13:07.820 --> 00:13:10.160 Saying to the Corinthians, do you want to excel? 00:13:10.379 --> 00:13:11.960 Do you want to be excellent spiritually? 00:13:11.960 --> 00:13:14.320 Actually, what you need is love. 00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:16.460 It is of vital importance. 00:13:16.460 --> 00:13:19.940 Okay? 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:20.940 Get the point. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:23.860 But what do you mean by love, Paul? 00:13:24.040 --> 00:13:24.940 What do you mean? 00:13:25.740 --> 00:13:26.639 What are you talking about? 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:27.540 What will it look like? 00:13:27.620 --> 00:13:30.440 Well, here is where he goes next as he describes what it looks like. 00:13:30.780 --> 00:13:31.900 Point number one is importance. 00:13:32.060 --> 00:13:33.300 Point number two is appearance. 00:13:33.800 --> 00:13:34.800 Verses four to seven. 00:13:35.060 --> 00:13:36.080 This is what it looks like. 00:13:36.780 --> 00:13:37.920 What I mean is this, verse four. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:14:04.079 There is a sense in which those words don't need any further explanation. 00:14:04.959 --> 00:14:07.679 The meaning is pretty plain and obvious. 00:14:08.620 --> 00:14:14.019 But let's press on them a bit because they are so different from how our culture thinks about love. 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:16.699 What does it mean? 00:14:16.939 --> 00:14:17.860 What does love mean? 00:14:18.139 --> 00:14:21.139 I was put on to the myth of Tristan over the summer. 00:14:21.279 --> 00:14:26.439 It's a 12th century story of a man and a woman who mistakenly drink a love potion. 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:31.399 And having drunk this love potion, they fall hopelessly for each other. 00:14:31.399 --> 00:14:36.379 And this potion has a power over them, and it forces them to do things. 00:14:36.379 --> 00:14:42.899 They can't control it, and it forces them to behave in ways that they may not otherwise behave. 00:14:42.899 --> 00:14:48.600 Now, when you hear that, you think, yeah, probably that is actually how love works. 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:53.139 And the reason that you think that is because that is how love has been defined according to every song, 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:58.240 every film, and every story that has come along since the 12th century, pretty much. 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:02.320 But that's not how Paul describes it. 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:06.139 Love, first of all, is patient. 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:13.039 Ah, so it's not a random electric feeling that comes over you that you can't control. 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:17.039 The word is literally long-suffering. 00:15:18.199 --> 00:15:19.599 Love is prepared to wait. 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:22.319 It doesn't rush to judge other people. 00:15:23.439 --> 00:15:24.519 Love gives it another go. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:26.980 You can hurt love, and love will absorb the pain, 00:15:27.379 --> 00:15:29.799 which means it gets taken advantage of. 00:15:30.699 --> 00:15:33.759 It gets presumed upon, and yet it keeps turning up. 00:15:35.339 --> 00:15:38.399 Love will wait for you and hold on to you, 00:15:38.860 --> 00:15:40.179 even when you let it down. 00:15:40.179 --> 00:15:42.239 It's long-suffering. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:43.819 Love is kind. 00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:46.719 Kindness, one definition is this. 00:15:46.779 --> 00:15:47.419 I think it's fine. 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:51.299 Kindness is the sincere desire to do good for another person. 00:15:51.719 --> 00:15:54.939 The sincere desire to do good for another person. 00:15:55.339 --> 00:15:58.719 Having them on your mind rather than yourself on your mind. 00:16:00.179 --> 00:16:01.319 Kindness is considerate. 00:16:02.599 --> 00:16:04.839 It anticipates other people's needs. 00:16:05.500 --> 00:16:09.699 If love is the action, kindness is what precedes the action in the heart. 00:16:10.179 --> 00:16:15.759 You see this lived out when someone calls you when you're having a hard time. 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.059 When someone offers to help you even when you didn't ask them. 00:16:21.959 --> 00:16:25.120 When someone steps in because they see that you have a need, 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:27.699 it's a need that they can meet, and they do that. 00:16:27.700 --> 00:16:32.240 They do it because they saw that you had a need, 00:16:32.680 --> 00:16:35.280 and they saw the need because they weren't wrapped up in themselves. 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:40.780 The Corinthians, you'll remember, they couldn't wait for everyone to arrive at church 00:16:40.780 --> 00:16:42.180 before tucking into the feasts. 00:16:42.179 --> 00:16:48.959 They ate the last spoonful for seconds despite others having not eaten. 00:16:49.199 --> 00:16:51.279 Love is patient and kind. 00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:56.299 And because of this, do you see, it doesn't envy or boast. 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:00.979 Love takes its mind off itself, 00:17:01.239 --> 00:17:05.859 and so it can rejoice when God blesses other people. 00:17:05.859 --> 00:17:11.479 Love is happy when others get things that you don't have, 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:15.240 even things that you really, really want, 00:17:15.899 --> 00:17:23.679 like a spouse or a baby or a job or a pay rise. 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:30.740 Love dictates that when the other gets those things 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:33.700 and you are longing for them, that you're able to rejoice with them. 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:38.720 And it doesn't pretend to rejoice. 00:17:39.320 --> 00:17:42.740 It actually takes joy in other people's blessing. 00:17:45.560 --> 00:17:47.519 And love doesn't push itself to the front. 00:17:48.259 --> 00:17:51.039 Love doesn't puff itself up and talk about its own achievements. 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:55.420 Love isn't arrogant about status or honor or gifts or anything else. 00:17:55.819 --> 00:17:56.859 And it isn't rude. 00:17:57.299 --> 00:18:00.079 It doesn't insist on its own way, pushing ahead of others, 00:18:00.579 --> 00:18:03.399 looking out for number one, asking in every situation, 00:18:04.019 --> 00:18:05.099 well, what's in this for me? 00:18:06.579 --> 00:18:07.539 That's not love. 00:18:09.259 --> 00:18:12.379 Love is not irritable or resentful. 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:16.119 Because love is not rude itself, 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:17.859 it can handle the rudeness of others. 00:18:17.859 --> 00:18:22.099 It doesn't rise to insults. 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:26.019 It doesn't hold on to past grievances. 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:29.359 The NIV translates this, 00:18:29.579 --> 00:18:31.659 it keeps no record of wrongs. 00:18:31.899 --> 00:18:36.379 What a lovely description of what it means to not be resentful. 00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:40.740 You don't hold on to things that others have done to you. 00:18:40.740 --> 00:18:45.380 You don't keep them as a way of holding them against them into the future. 00:18:47.120 --> 00:18:50.759 Love doesn't replay conversations in order to win the argument. 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:51.420 Do you do that? 00:18:51.500 --> 00:18:53.140 I have to say I've done that a few times. 00:18:54.620 --> 00:18:56.019 I wish I'd said that. 00:18:56.559 --> 00:18:58.079 Why do I wish I'd said that? 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:06.699 Because I would have shown myself cleverer or smarter or better or funnier or whatever it was. 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:10.980 Instead, in that situation where I came off second best, I could have won. 00:19:11.419 --> 00:19:14.179 Well, what's that if it's not me wanting to beat them? 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:17.259 And I'm playing it over in my mind because I'm resentful. 00:19:17.259 --> 00:19:21.440 Love doesn't let bitterness take root. 00:19:22.940 --> 00:19:30.559 Whatever someone has taken from you or whatever they're given that you had wanted, 00:19:31.819 --> 00:19:34.700 love doesn't rise. 00:19:36.779 --> 00:19:37.740 Here's the thing. 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:41.720 Love at root is about other people. 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:48.579 This was a very dark week just gone. 00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:53.120 A light went out in our world when Dolly Parton died. 00:19:54.759 --> 00:19:58.680 I mean, if you didn't wear black that day, I don't have anything for you. 00:19:58.700 --> 00:19:59.519 I'm sorry, you know. 00:20:01.539 --> 00:20:02.819 So Dolly Parton said this. 00:20:02.900 --> 00:20:05.900 They say love isn't about two people gazing into each other's eyes. 00:20:06.380 --> 00:20:09.640 It's about two people gazing outwards in the same direction. 00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:11.860 I believe this with all my heart. 00:20:12.360 --> 00:20:15.000 If Dolly believes it, I'll believe it. 00:20:16.840 --> 00:20:19.180 She said lots of stupid stuff as well, but you know. 00:20:19.940 --> 00:20:21.140 The point is this. 00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:26.340 She was making the point that love is not about you. 00:20:27.820 --> 00:20:30.380 It's about other people and it's about serving. 00:20:33.040 --> 00:20:34.920 Love is not about how you feel. 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:40.080 It's about other people and you putting yourself to their service. 00:20:42.820 --> 00:20:48.120 As we go through that list, can you see how thinking and living this way would transform church life? 00:20:49.220 --> 00:20:49.940 Any church. 00:20:49.940 --> 00:20:56.660 If you have a church community of people who say, how does this make me feel? 00:20:58.360 --> 00:21:02.160 It becomes very difficult because me is at the center. 00:21:02.259 --> 00:21:05.400 And if you've got lots of people who are putting me at the center, things don't work. 00:21:05.400 --> 00:21:12.960 But if you move from how does this make me feel to how can I serve, it changes everything. 00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:20.000 If you move from, can you believe that they said that to me? 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:22.280 To, don't even worry about it. 00:21:23.740 --> 00:21:25.440 Can you see how that transforms everything? 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:30.440 What a joyful and pleasant community that would be to be a part of. 00:21:30.620 --> 00:21:31.259 And it is. 00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:34.700 By God's grace, this is the atmosphere that we have here. 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:37.460 And long may it continue, but it doesn't just happen. 00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:44.380 We have to keep leaning on the Lord, keep resetting our hearts according to what it says here to make us like this. 00:21:45.860 --> 00:21:49.160 And Paul, of course, has church life primarily in view when he's talking here. 00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:53.220 But this understanding of love, if you think about it, it transforms all our relationships. 00:21:53.220 --> 00:21:56.400 How does this make me feel? 00:21:56.799 --> 00:21:58.539 Changing to how can I serve? 00:21:59.160 --> 00:22:00.480 Well, that transforms your friendships. 00:22:01.100 --> 00:22:02.120 You don't hold grudges. 00:22:03.059 --> 00:22:04.360 You put yourself out for the other. 00:22:05.420 --> 00:22:07.279 It transforms families. 00:22:08.660 --> 00:22:10.000 Because there's no bickering. 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:11.640 There's no wanting what you can get. 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:13.160 There is, what can I do to serve you? 00:22:15.700 --> 00:22:17.200 And, of course, what about marriage? 00:22:19.460 --> 00:22:22.440 If we have this reading at weddings all the time, 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:26.140 what would marriages look like if they actually embodied what is being taught here? 00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:30.480 If we grasp that this is what love is, first of all, 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:33.400 the first thing it will do is it will lower our expectations. 00:22:33.840 --> 00:22:38.320 We'll see that marriage isn't about somebody else making me feel the way I want to feel all the time. 00:22:38.660 --> 00:22:41.220 It's about mutual service in this way. 00:22:41.500 --> 00:22:43.259 It's about the building of fruitful households. 00:22:43.259 --> 00:22:50.779 And then, secondly, if you've got a marriage where the atmosphere is this kind of patience and kindness and forgiveness and humility and grace, 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:53.180 who wouldn't want to belong to a marriage like that? 00:22:55.119 --> 00:23:00.420 All, I think it's fair to say, all of our problems in marriage come back to selfishness. 00:23:01.579 --> 00:23:02.319 Theirs or mine. 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:08.839 But if we love like this, as the selfishness goes, so will the problems. 00:23:10.039 --> 00:23:12.500 Love seeks the good of the other. 00:23:14.839 --> 00:23:17.779 Which also, by the way, is why love does not rejoice at wrongdoing. 00:23:17.859 --> 00:23:18.220 Do you see? 00:23:19.139 --> 00:23:21.000 It rejoices with the truth. 00:23:22.439 --> 00:23:23.220 This is important. 00:23:23.919 --> 00:23:26.000 And our culture is way off on this point. 00:23:26.179 --> 00:23:30.299 You know, we're told that love means we offer unconditional affirmation to someone else's choices. 00:23:30.299 --> 00:23:31.180 That's not love. 00:23:33.639 --> 00:23:37.200 Our culture says that whatever you think or say or do is right and good. 00:23:38.019 --> 00:23:39.299 That can't be right, can it? 00:23:39.379 --> 00:23:40.139 Of course it can't. 00:23:40.180 --> 00:23:42.139 Play that out any kind of ways. 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:46.279 The person who thought it was right to stab somebody, they go, well, that was right. 00:23:46.399 --> 00:23:47.619 You say, no, of course it wasn't. 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:51.019 It would be absurd to agree in that situation. 00:23:51.659 --> 00:23:54.700 And that is why real love rejoices in the truth. 00:23:55.639 --> 00:23:58.599 It always seeks the objective good of the other person. 00:23:58.599 --> 00:24:01.980 And for that to happen, it needs to be in line with the truth. 00:24:02.740 --> 00:24:09.779 Love refuses to take any joy in sin, to pretend that sin is okay. 00:24:10.139 --> 00:24:13.559 So it won't celebrate what God disapproves of. 00:24:13.959 --> 00:24:17.099 It cannot raise a glass to unrighteousness. 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:22.599 It cannot glorify that which God says is inglorious. 00:24:23.019 --> 00:24:24.419 That's not loving. 00:24:24.420 --> 00:24:34.600 One thing this means is that true love, 1 Corinthians 13 love, will, quote, be accused of many things and the central charge will be that it is unloving. 00:24:35.340 --> 00:24:38.060 This is because people are defining love out of the wrong dictionary. 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:41.740 In the famous love chapter, love refuses to rejoice in unrighteousness. 00:24:42.039 --> 00:24:46.820 Not only so, but love links arms with the truth and they rejoice together. 00:24:46.819 --> 00:24:56.639 So it is necessary then, verse 7, that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. 00:24:57.980 --> 00:24:59.539 It's a lovely realism there. 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:01.639 That isn't cheesy. 00:25:01.899 --> 00:25:03.299 That isn't head in the cloud stuff. 00:25:03.379 --> 00:25:04.859 That's proper country music truth. 00:25:05.579 --> 00:25:09.460 Love takes it on the chin and isn't cynical, isn't pessimistic. 00:25:09.460 --> 00:25:12.340 That's what Paul means by believes and hopes all things. 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:13.579 And love keeps going. 00:25:13.720 --> 00:25:14.920 Love plays the long game. 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:17.620 It endures all things. 00:25:19.980 --> 00:25:22.039 This is what love really looks like. 00:25:22.100 --> 00:25:28.079 And the reason that Paul profiles it for the Corinthians in the way that he does here is to highlight that they've fallen short. 00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:30.519 To highlight their failure in this regard. 00:25:31.180 --> 00:25:37.140 As they hear this description, they can't miss how far short their rivalry and their pride and their division fall. 00:25:37.140 --> 00:25:41.080 Okay, but we feel undone by this. 00:25:41.780 --> 00:25:42.640 Where do we go? 00:25:43.280 --> 00:25:44.900 Well, how do we find this kind of love? 00:25:46.620 --> 00:25:49.180 Where do you go when you feel challenged by this kind of thing? 00:25:49.259 --> 00:25:52.100 Well, we need to go thirdly to its permanence. 00:25:54.120 --> 00:25:57.360 Its importance, its appearance, and then thirdly, its permanence. 00:25:57.460 --> 00:25:59.360 Verse 8, love never ends. 00:26:00.100 --> 00:26:01.840 Now, as for prophecies, they'll pass away. 00:26:01.920 --> 00:26:02.980 As for tongues, they'll cease. 00:26:03.040 --> 00:26:04.640 As for knowledge, it will pass away. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:07.680 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 00:26:07.840 --> 00:26:10.160 But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 00:26:11.120 --> 00:26:14.020 Verse 13, so now faith, hope, and love abide these three. 00:26:14.520 --> 00:26:16.720 But the greatest of these is love. 00:26:17.880 --> 00:26:19.940 Love never ends. 00:26:20.440 --> 00:26:29.680 The Corinthians are taken up with prophecies and tongues and spiritual knowledge and making in crowds and cliques and rivalry happen as a result of these. 00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:31.560 And he's saying, but those things are temporary. 00:26:32.360 --> 00:26:33.320 They're for a time. 00:26:33.620 --> 00:26:39.700 They're anticipating the arrival of the perfect, the complete, full, final revelation of God in the Scriptures. 00:26:40.519 --> 00:26:43.400 When that comes, these temporary gifts will pass away. 00:26:44.700 --> 00:26:49.700 Paul is saying that the gifts of prophecy and tongues and so on belong in the church nursery. 00:26:49.700 --> 00:26:52.920 They were needed when the church was an infant. 00:26:53.360 --> 00:26:56.019 But as she grows up, they get left behind. 00:26:56.480 --> 00:27:03.600 But the things that remain, the things that abide, verse 13, faith, hope, and love. 00:27:04.539 --> 00:27:06.420 Those are what you need for the Christian life. 00:27:07.480 --> 00:27:09.100 Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:11.080 Hope in his coming again. 00:27:11.340 --> 00:27:13.620 And love for the brethren. 00:27:13.619 --> 00:27:16.779 And the greatest of these is love. 00:27:17.899 --> 00:27:22.639 Because it is the characteristic that most reflects the God who is love. 00:27:23.919 --> 00:27:29.799 The God who showed his love for us in going to the cross to pay in death and blood for our sins. 00:27:29.899 --> 00:27:33.379 When the Apostle John describes God's love in 1 John 4, he says, 00:27:33.559 --> 00:27:34.039 This is love. 00:27:34.579 --> 00:27:40.379 Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 00:27:40.380 --> 00:27:47.180 At the cross, the love of God is displayed for the whole cosmos to see. 00:27:47.300 --> 00:27:49.460 The love of God that triumphs over sin. 00:27:49.840 --> 00:27:52.440 A love that reaches beyond our sin. 00:27:53.700 --> 00:27:58.800 You know that you can never out-sin the love of God in Christ. 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:02.540 Our sins, they are very, very, very many. 00:28:03.340 --> 00:28:05.980 But his mercy is much, much more. 00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:08.180 And here's the reason we know that. 00:28:08.180 --> 00:28:10.160 The cross of Christ. 00:28:11.660 --> 00:28:18.740 It is at the cross that we realize that before we are called to love another person, we have been loved. 00:28:19.140 --> 00:28:23.620 Before we are called to give love, we have first received it. 00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:25.640 And that is always how it works. 00:28:26.500 --> 00:28:33.220 If you are not a Christian, if you're here this morning, perhaps you came through Holiday Bible Club last week. 00:28:33.259 --> 00:28:34.640 We are thrilled that you're here. 00:28:34.740 --> 00:28:35.500 You're so welcome. 00:28:35.620 --> 00:28:36.680 I want you to hear this. 00:28:36.680 --> 00:28:42.180 This is the vital first step to being able to do any of the stuff we're talking about this morning. 00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:43.960 You go to Christ. 00:28:45.060 --> 00:28:50.440 Unless you have received his love, you don't have it to give to other people in any meaningful way. 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:52.840 So turn your life over to Christ. 00:28:54.380 --> 00:28:59.500 And allow Christ's love for you to transform your heart for others. 00:28:59.500 --> 00:29:03.539 The apostle John goes on in that passage, 1 John 4 verse 11. 00:29:03.539 --> 00:29:07.940 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:08.920 That's the order. 00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:10.359 We go to Christ. 00:29:10.660 --> 00:29:11.839 We receive his love. 00:29:12.220 --> 00:29:15.240 And his love transforms us to love other people. 00:29:15.819 --> 00:29:19.900 And because we have received the love of Christ, we have it to give. 00:29:19.900 --> 00:29:27.540 So this morning, as we read these verses, we hear verses 4 to 7. 00:29:27.620 --> 00:29:31.200 And all of us, I hope all of us say, I wish I could love a bit more like that. 00:29:31.759 --> 00:29:33.800 I wish I could be more like that. 00:29:33.860 --> 00:29:35.120 The answer is to go to Christ. 00:29:35.800 --> 00:29:38.380 Go to Christ and get close to him. 00:29:38.380 --> 00:30:08.360 Go to Christ. 00:30:08.380 --> 00:30:09.240 Go to Christ. 00:30:09.380 --> 00:30:10.540 Take him at his word. 00:30:10.740 --> 00:30:16.340 Allow his truth to change you so that you are changed to live for others. 00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:18.200 It is in Christ's presence. 00:30:18.360 --> 00:30:22.020 There's nowhere else that we are changed to be like him, the man of love. 00:30:22.920 --> 00:30:26.000 So in a world that is creaking under the strain of anger and bitterness, 00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:29.620 we need the transforming love of Jesus. 00:30:31.480 --> 00:30:36.980 If we will thrive as a church, if we will live in our families under the blessing of God, 00:30:36.980 --> 00:30:40.680 if our relationships will flourish, we must give ourselves to love. 00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:44.339 And we do that because we can. 00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:47.900 Because we have first been loved by Christ. 00:30:48.700 --> 00:30:50.360 That is the more excellent way. 00:30:50.359 --> 00:30:51.959 Let's pray. 00:30:51.959 --> 00:30:52.439 Let's pray. 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.439 --> 00:30:52.439 00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:53.269 may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may